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Is it time to halt the madness which is quite literally tearing our country apart?

Prime Minister Theresa May should stop misleading voters and admit that Brexit can be avoided if Britain decides to unilaterally scrap divorce talks, the man who drafted Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty will say on Friday.

May formally notified the European Union of Britain’s intention to leave the EU by triggering Article 50 of the treaty on March 29, setting the clock ticking on a two-year exit process, which has so far failed to yield a divorce deal.

"While the divorce talks proceed, the parties are still married. Reconciliation is still possible," John Kerr, British ambassador to the EU from 1990 to 1995, will say in a speech in London.

"We still have all the rights of a member-state, including the right to change our minds," Kerr will say, according to excerpts released by his office. "The British people have the right to know this – they should not be misled."

The day May triggered Article 50, she told the British parliament that there was "no turning back" and that the United Kingdom would be leaving the EU.

"A political decision has been made, in this country, to maintain that there can be no going back. Actually, the country still has a free choice about whether to proceed," Kerr said.

In the shock referendum in June 2016, 17.4 million voters, or 51.9 percent of votes cast, backed leaving the EU while 16.1 million voters, or 48.1 percent of votes cast, backed staying.

May, an initial opponent of Brexit who won the top job in the political turmoil that followed the vote, said last month that Britain would not revoke Article 50. Government lawyers asked judges last year to assume that it was irrevocable.

But ever since the referendum, opponents of Britain's exit - from French President Emmanuel Macron and former British prime minister Tony Blair to billionaire investor George Soros - have suggested Britain could change its mind.

European Council President Donald Tusk even invoked the lyrics of John Lennon to imagine a Brexit rescinded.Thus far, there is no sign of a change of heart on Brexit in opinion polls. Both May's Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party now explicitly support leaving the EU, which Britain joined in 1973.BREXIT NEVER?Supporters of Brexit have repeatedly said that any attempt to have another referendum, or to undermine Brexit, would catapult the world's fifth largest economy into crisis."A second referendum would lead the United Kingdom into totally uncharted territory with very serious potential consequences for our democracy," said Richard Tice, who helped found one of the two Leave campaign groups in the referendum.But the Brexit process has been challenged in a number of cases in British courts, many focusing on the as-yet unanswered question: Can Article 50 be reversed?The 256-word clause does not say whether it can be revoked once it is invoked. This means that, if lawyers ask for clarification, the question would have to go to the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court.Kerr, who in 2002-2003 acted as secretary-general of the European Constitutional Convention that drafted Article 50, said the debate had been misrepresented inside Britain: it was clear, he said, that May's Article 50 letter could be revoked.Such is the interest in the legalities of Brexit that one prominent lawyer, Jessica Simor, has formally asked for May's unpublished legal advice on the matter."Britain can basically change its mind at any time right up to the 29th of March 2019," Simor told Reuters last month."If you can revoke Article 50, then parliament has the power to rescue the country if that becomes necessary – if the government fails to secure a deal, or the deal is terrible, or the people do not want it."

Youth Team

"European Council President Donald Tusk even invoked the lyrics of John Lennon to imagine a Brexit rescinded.
Thus far, there is no sign of a change of heart on Brexit in opinion polls. Both May's Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party now explicitly support leaving the EU, which Britain joined in 1973.
BREXIT NEVER?"

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[h=1]Reversing Brexit with a second referendum would have a 'positive' impact on economy, OECD claims[/h]

A [FONT=&quot]second referendum that reverses Brexit would have a "positive" and "significant" impact on the UK economy, a leading think tank has claimed.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has projected that the British economy will grow by just 1 per cent next year in part because of uncertainty around Brexit.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]It said that there is a risk of a "disorderly" Brexit, in which the UK leaves without a deal triggering an "adverse reaction" in the financial markets and pushing exchange rates to new lows.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The head of the OECD is unveiling the report at a press conference alongside Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, in the Treasury. Mr Hammond has faced repeated criticism for being "gloomy" about Brexit.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The OECD report says: "In case Brexit gets reversed by political decision (change of majority, new referendum, etc.), the positive impact on growth would be significant."[/FONT]

I expected more of this. If a re-vote happens then I will vote against reversing the decision because I think it sets a precedent which makes voting meaningless, a little like the EU did with Ireland.
As somebody who didn't vote in the original poll, I would not be voting in support of Brexit but in support of meaningful democracy.

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I expected more of this. If a re-vote happens then I will vote against reversing the decision because I think it sets a precedent which makes voting meaningless, a little like the EU did with Ireland.
As somebody who didn't vote in the original poll, I would not be voting in support of Brexit but in support of meaningful democracy.

But I'm coming to the reluctant conclusion that Democracy is close to dead in this and many countries.. it has been superceded by the demands of consumerism. The economic scare arguments are already being framed by the media..

Not enough people respect or value "democracy" it to see it enhanced and protected and for different reasons. The corporate right put their absolute desire to make money ahead of democracy.. we can see their influence right across the news media.. and the left has always had an element of anti democrats those who think achieving their political ideology is more important than "woolly ill defined notions of democracy" but since Brexit a wider group on the left have shown themselves determined to undermine a very important democratic decision... and with it the principles of democracy itself. There are notable exceptions to this on both the left and right.. people I would describe as true democrats and principled people who understand the will of the people must be respected.

We hear people openly talking about manipulating the demographic to achieve "their" desired result in a second referendum..

I've decided that the 1975 referendum was fought on the basis of YES.. to a free trade zone and an enhanced economy.(Economic argument).. NO against a United States of Europe (the democratic constitutional argument)
The YES campaign with their economic arguments campaign won this.. and the ground is being prepared by the media for a third European referendum to achieve a REMAIN result based on economic arguments.

I believe the majority of the general population will vote based on their wallet.. and the perception being put out that leaving will damage their wallets. Nobody can really know the long term answer to that in my opinion.
We may be just about to discover some world beating tech or mineral resource that transforms our economic prospects..

I agree with you 100%.. a second referendum or ignoring the result of the first referendum creates a dangerous anti democratic precedent.. it devalues a vote taken.
It opens up the idea that if you (or for that matter your "hated" political opponent) don't like a political decision you can keep having votes until the "correct" decision is reached and that isn't democracy.

I also have a real fear this unholy alliance of anti-democrats will fix the result.. one way or another. We live in dangerous times for democracy.

The British people are at risk of being “misled” over Brexit, the man who drafted Article 50 has said.

Lord Kerr, who played a key role in drafting Article 50, the legal mechanism for a country to leave the EU, will deliver a speech pointing out that the Government’s suggestion that Brexit cannot be reversed is potentially misleading and part of a “political decision”.

“We can change our minds at any stage of the process,” the former UK ambassador to the European Union will say, insisting that Theresa May’s decision to send the letter triggering Article 50 does not mean Brexit was inevitable.

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I expected more of this. If a re-vote happens then I will vote against reversing the decision because I think it sets a precedent which makes voting meaningless, a little like the EU did with Ireland.
As somebody who didn't vote in the original poll, I would not be voting in support of Brexit but in support of meaningful democracy.

What if the economic reality of the situation becomes clear, the promises made look ridiculous and the prospect of a terrible trade deal with our closest neighbours? How bad would it have to get before you allowed people to change their mind?

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What if the economic reality of the situation becomes clear, the promises made look ridiculous and the prospect of a terrible trade deal with our closest neighbours? How bad would it have to get before you allowed people to change their mind?

What if the body you're choosing to remain a part of is an apparently doomed undemocratic vehicle for consumerism and corporate profit with no real tangible evidence of socialist principles and commonwealth, dangerously manipulated by maniacs with no political mandate?

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But I'm coming to the reluctant conclusion that Democracy is close to dead in this and many countries.. it has been superceded by the demands of consumerism. The arguments are being framed by the media..

Not enough people respect or value "democracy" it to see it enhanced and protected and for different reasons. The corporate right put their absolute desire to make money ahead of democracy.. we can see their influence right across the news media.. and the left has always had an element of anti democrats those who think achieving their political ideology is more important than ill defined notions of "democracy" but since Brexit a wider group on the left have shown themselves determined to undermine a very important democratic decision... and with it the principles of democracy itself. There are notable exceptions to this on both the left and right.. people I would describe as true democrats and principled people who understand and respect the will of the people.

We hear people openly talking about manipulating the demographic to achieve "their" desired result in a second referendum..

I've decided that the 1975 referendum was fought on the basis of YES.. to a free trade zone and an enhanced economy.(Economic argument).. NO against a United States of Europe (the democratic constitutional argument)
The YES campaign with their economic arguments campaign won this.. and the ground is being prepared by the media for a third European referendum to achieve a REMAIN result based on economic arguments.

I believe the majority of the general population will vote based on their wallet.. and the perception being put out that leaving will damage their wallets. Nobody can really know the answer to that in my opinion.
We may be just about to discover some world beating tech that transforms our economic prospects..

I agree with you 100%.. a second referendum or ignoring the result of the first referendum creates a dangerous democratic precedent.. it devalues a vote taken.
It opens the idea that if you don't like a political decision you can keep having votes until the "correct" decision is reached and that isn't democracy.

I also have a real fear this unholy alliance of anti-democrats will fix the result.. one way or another. We live in dangerous times.

Manager

What if the economic reality of the situation becomes clear, the promises made look ridiculous and the prospect of a terrible trade deal with our closest neighbours? How bad would it have to get before you allowed people to change their mind?